


The Young Woman and the Fey Queen

by NervousAsexual



Category: Jolene - Dolly Parton (Song)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, F/F, Self-Sacrifice, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27393835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousAsexual/pseuds/NervousAsexual
Summary: When the moon is almost full but not quite and the air is hot and damp like the breath of a beast and the cicadas sing just so, the wise do not leave their homes for fear of crossing more than the valley.Those who cross into the realm of the fair folk do not return. There is no use in weeping or begging or bribing. Those who have crossed over belong to her now.
Relationships: Jolene/Narrator (Jolene)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 36
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	The Young Woman and the Fey Queen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [serephemeral](https://archiveofourown.org/users/serephemeral/gifts).



The wise don't travel the valley after dark. The holler can be treacherous then. A soul who wanders astray can encounter any number of dangers--abandoned mine shafts, widowmakers, mountain lions--at the best of times. There are other dangers, however, dangers that appear so infrequently that it is easy to forget just how dangerous they really are.

When the moon is almost full but not quite and the air is hot and damp like the breath of a beast and the cicadas sing just so, the wise do not leave their homes. On nights such as these the veil between our world and that of the fair folk grows thin and the fool who walks the road may find he has crossed more than the valley. What happens to the fool after that is hard to say, but one thing is certain. Those who cross into the realm of the fair folk do not return. There is no use in weeping or begging or bribing. Those who have crossed over belong to _her_ now.

It's said that not too long ago there was a young man who lived in the holler and he spent an evening with the young woman he loved, an evening when the moon was almost full but not quite and the air was hot and warm and the cicadas sang just so. He stayed too late and the young woman begged him to stay until morning. They both knew the stories, and as an engaged couple there was no reason why it was improper that he stayed, but the young man insisted. In the morning he would need to feed his animals and thus needed to be home. He kissed the young woman and walked away into the night.

The young woman lay awake all night, worry her constant companion. When morning came and the darkness began to grow light she wrapped herself up in a shawl and began the long walk to the young man's home.

She told herself that she was being foolish. The stories of the fairy queen's realm were only that: stories. She would arrive at his house and find him laughing at her fear as he gathered the eggs and fed the horse. But when she arrived the horse gave an irritated snort and the chickens were eating from their own egg shells. The young man was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

In the realm of the fair folk the fey queen had watched the young man approach down a moonlit road, heedless of the dangers and whistling softly to himself. He seemed not to notice when he crossed the border between her world and his. The realm belonged to her, bowed to her whim, and it would have been very simple for her to part the curtains again, allowing him passage through her lands. He would arrive on the other side and only a few minutes would have passed in his mind, although he would have lost hours in his own realm. It would have been very simple indeed.

Unfortunately for this young man, the fey queen gave no quarter to the men who entered her world.

When he realized what he had done, when the fey queen's subjects danced around him like lightning bugs in the dark and carried him to her throne, he pleaded for forgiveness. He was here by mistake, he insisted. He had animals to care for and he'd been so wrapped up in thoughts of them that he had wandered through the veil unintentionally.

The fey queen listened from the darkness that surrounded her throne, silhouetted as she rested her chin imperiously upon her hand. This was a story she had heard many times, and though she could tell that it was no lie it mattered very little to her. Her subjects began to spin around the young man, faster and faster, until the force of their movements set him to spinning as well. A very simple music, the kind found only in her realm, began to play, and like so many others before him the young man began to dance.

He danced and he danced, until his body ached and his feet bled, and though he cried and begged it made no difference.

For every other stray soul who crossed the realms this would have been the end of the story. But as the fey queen watched dispassionately (this was a dance she had seen over and over since the beginning of time), something unusual happened. In the human realm a young woman approached the border as if she as well would pass. Then, when she reached the place where the veil grew thin, she knelt in the middle of the packed dirt road and she began to sing.

She sang a song about love, love that would last forever, even if she was not what the object of her love should need, love that would continue even at a bittersweet distance. Her song was so moving, and her voice so lovely, that the fey queen sent her subjects to bring this human to her as well.

The young woman didn't run when she saw the fair folk approaching. Most humans did but she did not. She held up a hand, palm turned to the sky, and when the small glowing light of the first fairy alighted there she asked it, "Would you please take me to her?"

A faint stirring of interest woke the fey queen from her boredom. A mortal woman, asking to see the fey queen? She indicated her want to the fair folk and they surrounded the young woman and carried her to the queen's throne.

"Why have you come here?" the fey queen asked her.

"I believe a young man came to your realm not long ago. I am here to beg for his return. He is such a kind, gentle soul, your highness, and he should live a long and happy life."

"I require payment for his transgression. He trespassed where he was not welcome."

"I know," said the young woman. "That is why I am offering myself in his place."

The fey queen blinked in surprise. She had never heard of such a thing before. "Do you know who I am?" she asked the young woman.

The young woman, shivering in fear, returned, "I know that your beauty is beyond compare. I know that your hair is like flames and your eyes like emeralds." The fey queen listened silently, and the young woman pressed on. "I know that your smile is like a breath of spring and your voice is soft like summer rain. I know how easily you could take my man but I'm begging you to take me instead."

My name is Jolene," the fey queen told her. "I am queen of this domain."

The young woman looked up at her. Tears sparkled in her eyes.

"Please, your highness," she whispered. "I can't bear to think of him trapped and afraid."

"You intrigue me. Who are you that comes to my realm and tries to barter one life for another?"

"I am nobody." The young woman's gaze fell to the floor. "I know that I am not beautiful or clever or strong. All I have ever had to give is myself. In a month's time I was to give myself to him, and now I'm asking that you allow me to give myself for him."

Jolene said nothing for a time, only observing how this terrified young woman held herself upright.

"Why would you give yourself to him or for him?" she asked at last.

The young woman was taken aback. "Because I love him."

"But why? What is it he gives you in return?"

The young woman hesitated. "He gives me his love."

"I see." With a dismissive wave of her hand the fey queen sent a dozen of her subjects off over the hills of her land. "You intrigue me. You say you are nobody but you believe your life is a fair trade for his, which you have so strongly assured me is of great value."

The young woman's shoulders curved inward.

"I have a proposal for you, Miss Nobody from the mortal realm. I will bring your man here and explain to him the bargain you have made. If he refuses and insists that it is you whose life is of the most value, I will allow both of you to leave this place. But if he accepts willingly and abandons you to your fate, you will stay. Are these terms acceptable?"

The stories say nothing good will come from a deal with a fey, but the young woman nodded. "Thank you, your highness."

Jolene hummed dismissively and looked out over the hills. A ring of her subjects approached, and in the middle, exhausted, bloody, and too frightened to cry, danced the young man.

The young woman looked at him with terror in her eyes, and when the fey queen with another wave of her hand erased the spell that had kept the young man dancing the young woman ran to him as he collapsed and knelt beside him.

"Why are you here?" he asked her. "It's too dangerous. You should have stayed away."

"I couldn't leave you. I couldn't bear to think of what they might do to you."

"She came to barter with me," the fey queen said. "A life for a life. Her soul for yours."

The young man looked up at his young woman, confusion plain in his eyes.

"I will stay in your place," she told him. "I will accept punishment for you."

"You can't." He shook his head.

"Oh, but she can," Jolene told him. "I am amenable to such a deal. She stays and you return."

He stared at the young woman. "You would do that for me?"

"Of course I would." She held him tightly. "I love you."

"And I you." He hugged her back. "Thank you. More than words can say, thank you."

Then he stood, trembling, and told the fey queen, "I accept."

Jolene nodded once and with a wave of her hand opened the way for him, back to his own realm.

"I will tell everyone what you have done for me," the young man said to the young woman, hardly seeming to notice the tears that streamed down her face. "You will never be forgotten, not as long as a soul still lives in this holler."

Then he placed a single chaste kiss on the top of her head, and he ran.

The young woman said nothing. She only cried as the veil closed behind him.

The fey queen cast a glance at her as she stood to walk away. "Do you know why I keep all who cross my realm?"

The young woman, trying very hard not to sob, shook her head.

"Because when men come to my realm--and it is almost always men--they bring their wants. So many of them come grovelling before my throne and beg me for something. 'Make me wealthy.' 'Kill this man who slighted me.' 'Make this one love me.' And even they do not compare to the ones who come for me." She looked long and hard at the young woman. "Some, the extraordinarily foolish, attempt to use force. Others come to list all that makes them better than any human to ever walk the earth. And then there are those who think that they have earned me, as if entering my realm is a feat of great undertaking. Love comes cheap, Miss Nobody."

The young woman took a deep breath. "Something can come easily and still have value."

Jolene looked at her curiously.

"I came here for this. Will you force me to dance?"

Jolene thought it over. "No," she said at last. "What has just happened seems enough punishment for now."

* * *

Despite the passage of time outside the fey queen's realm the young woman remained where she had knelt, so long that the wildflowers tangled in her hair and moss began to grow on her skin, and despite her disregard for mortal lives Jolene watched this with her brow furrowed in worry and her subjects trailing behind her like a cloak as she paced. Finally she came to the young woman and begged her to eat.

"I am not hungry," the young woman said.

"Are you still mourning your man? He left you without a backwards glance. He does not deserve your grief."

"It's not that," the young woman said. "I'm not suffering from hunger. I don't understand it myself."

The fey queen realized that the young woman had been in her realm so long that she was changing. While she was not immortal, she was certainly not mortal any longer either. Jolene had not foreseen this. Indeed, no mortal had ever stayed so long in her realm before; every other mortal who had crossed the border had danced themselves to death long before such a thing could occur.

"I think it is time you returned to your own realm," the fey queen told her.

"But his punishment..."

"Are you really so foolish? I am returning your life to you. Take it and run, mortal."

But the young woman only looked up at Jolene, eyes searching the fey queen's face.

"Our bargain is completed. Your man's debt is paid. Go home, mortal."

"No."

The fey queen was aghast. "What? What did you say?"

"No. Your highness."

"'No?' Don't you know by now that no one refuses the fey queen?"

"Yes," the young woman said quietly. "That is why I must stay."

The fey queen tried one final time. "If you stay in my realm you will lose your mortality. When you finally do return you will never age. You will be forced to watch those you love grow old and die. You will be alone. Is that what you want?"

"No. That is why I must stay." The young woman held out a hand and the fey queen's softly glowing subject lit up her palm. "Your realm is beautiful, your highness. I've come to love your subjects, and I think they love me as well." The fair folk in her hand fairly buzzed in agreement. "I am happy here. I know I have already asked so much of you but please. Please, let me stay."

Jolene only stared at the young woman.

"I'm sorry. I know that humans only come to you with wants. It's in our nature. But I am begging you, your highness."

The fey queen considered her a moment longer. "Stand up."

The young woman did so.

"I will allow you to stay, but on one condition."

"I will do anything."

"This is my condition: stop suffering. You are no longer a prisoner. Walk, dance, run, I don't care what you do, but don't just kneel there until the end times."

The young woman accepted these terms.

* * *

Time passed in the mortal and immortal realms. True to her word, the young woman was not still. She traveled the realm and enjoyed her time with the fair folk, and to the surprise of the fey queen she spent time talking with Jolene. The two spent more and more time together. They had many serious discussions but many more lighthearted ones, and the fey queen let the few trespassers to come leave her realm.

One day the two were sitting together in a field of wildflowers when the young woman turned to the fey queen.

"I know that you have hair like flames," she said, "and eyes like emeralds, and your smile is like a breath of spring and your voice like a summer rain. I know that I can't hope to compare to you."

"I disagree," said the fey queen, but the young woman took her hand.

"I know that you could have your choice of men, but I have another want. I suppose I'm still a bit mortal."

"You are something better," Jolene said. "You are yourself."

The young woman smiled. "As I said, I have another want. It is a significant one."

"Aren't they all?"

"My happiness depends on this. I'm begging of you."

The fey queen leaned forward so that her forehead touched the young woman's. "And what is it that you are begging of me?"

"It is so much to ask, Jolene. What I want is your love."

And Jolene smiled, tucking a bit of the young woman's hair behind her ear. "You already have it."

* * *

The wise do not travel the valley after dark. There are any number of dangers that could end the life of a foolish traveler. But they say that on nights when the moon is almost full but not quite and the air is hot and damp like the breath of a beast and the cicadas are singing just so the veil between our world and that of the fair folk grows thin, and the sound can be heard of a distance voice singing a song about love that will last forever. Those who have heard all say the same thing: the love in that beautiful voice is worth any danger the holler can hold.


End file.
